Friday Friday Friday. Post some metal porn!
Weiss
Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
Did you pick up anything cool this week? I almost pulled the trigger on one of the old pour 10 oz Engelhard bars but I couldn't bring myself to pay $4 per ounce over spot--at least not at today's silver prices 
But I can console myself with my meager stack of those bars and their successors, the "pillow" type 10 ounce bars. This group is about 1/100th of what @cmanbb has!
And I was revisiting the idea of the big bullion manufacturers and their respective forays into the world of "art bars" that we've discussed recently. Reminded me of this peculiar set from Johnson Matthey. They're sometimes called the "Bill of Rights" set, or "Personal Freedoms". They're not exactly the bill of rights, but they are pretty close.
And they are about as hybrid as it gets: Not quite bullion and they're not art bars, but art...rounds?
This is my set. They seem like they're scarce, but everyone has them or has had them at one point. They seem to go from wildly popular to almost forgotten. I don't think AE has any info on them yet. Anyone else know more?
--Severian the Lame
Comments
Close-up example of one of the 10 individual rounds, and the common reverse:
--Severian the Lame
Nice set.... I started to look for a set - a few years ago - and did not find one... Then forgot about them. I should check again...might be some available now. Cheers, RickO
@Weiss
Yeah, +$4 over at today's spot is a hard pill to swallow. On the other side of that coin I've been asking myself, is $25/oz the new $15/oz🤷♂️
Highsight, should've buying up these P bars too, but only wanted the w series at the time.
A 🤏 family photo of 3- digit w bars.
@cmanbb , that is INSANE!
Three-digit W series for miles. I know I've said it before, but you have a sizeable percentage of the surviving population of these bars. Well done, man!
--Severian the Lame
Thanks Weiss,
I've only been able to document ~450 +/-serial numbers in this series over the past 4+ years. I know of one other collector who claims to own ~125 others, but has yet to produce serial numbers to me as he said he would. He and I agreed to swap numbers for possible trades for sequential sets, but I've been waiting and asking for about a year now🤷♂️
Who knows how many exist from the original mintage?
@Weiss
Also, I've only seen 6 or 7 of the 90-2 digit serials made and a 1 digit bar has yet to surface.
A 1 digit bar would be cooooool
I got this earlier this week:
And this last Friday:
My YouTube Channel
I found this cool piece last week. I have seen the Mt. St. Helen's rounds before but never with this presentation card.
A long gone, local shop in Oregon City commissioned "renowned artist" John Rankin and the Crown Mint to commemorate the eruption.
According to the paperwork, 5000 numbered coins were struck.
Mine is number 2599.
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Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
@Meltdown... Nice Mt. St. Helen's round... A lot less of that mountain left than the reverse depicts. I moved to WA state later that year, and visited the mountain a few times in the 20 years I lived there. Cheers, RickO
Junk from the trunk.
@bolivarshagnasty.... I like that one, what is the reverse like? Cheers, RickO
RickO, This is one of 7? pirate themed 2 ounce rounds from a series called Privateer. I bought this one from a Collector at FUN this past year trying to raise some cash. Just received another from ebay recently. Rather like the high relief. Search Privateer 2 oz silver round on ebay.
@bolivarshagnasty.... Thank you very much... for the picture and the information. Cheers, RickO
Mr_Spud
@bolivarshagnasty Love those rounds. I finished that set last year. There's one or two that carry quite a premium, and getting tougher to find.
An interesting 4 oz bar I have long owned. I have never learned who made it.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163